Study: Combo Rx regimen can treat bipolar depression

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Dive Brief:

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Cyclurad, a combination of Ketamine, the mood stabilizer Lurasidone and a tubreculosis drug, D-cycloserine, has long-term efficacy in hard-to-treat bipolar depression. Cyclurad is being developed by the company NeuroRx.

The peer-reviewed study included eight patients and was conducted by researchers at Columbia University in NYC.

More than three million Americans live with bipolar depression, which is also known as manic depression.

Dive Insight:

One of the most exciting takeaways from this study is that researchers seem to have uncovered a way to leverage the short-term efficacy of Ketamine in rapidly reversing depression for a short period of time, by combining it with other drugs to lengthen the positive treatment effect.

There is a huge unmet medical need associated with bipolar depression, which experts say leads 25% to 50% of those with the disease to attempt suicide. Approval of Cyclurad could be a major game-changer for treatment of this challenging disease.

NeuroRx is privately funded and headed up by Jonathan Javitt, who lives in Israel and has a stellar drug-development history, including developing drugs for Pfizer and Merck, in addition to being a healthcare advisor during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.